This gripping documentary about Gennadiy Mokhnenko, aka Pastor Crocodile, a controversial child-welfare activist in Ukraine, has the propulsive power and arc of a drama. And in this burly man of God, with his thunderous laugh and larger than life personality, the director Steve Hoover has a confounding, complex central character who acts as the lens through which we see the track-marked underbelly of this troubled country. The pastor rolls up his sleeves and trawls through the grimmest drug-infested dives imaginable – sewers, shacks, alleys – and there he finds children. His methods are unorthodox – often he physically hauls the kids from the streets, bundling them into his van and browbeating them into recovery. He removes children from neglectful homes even though he has no legal right to do so. His campaign against drug dealers borders on vigilantism. But even this driven and forceful personality can find himself beaten down by the harrowing suffering he witnesses. Particularly effective is Hoover’s use of the recurring motif of Mokhnenko washing, scouring his hands and face to slough off the day’s memories. The shifting backdrop of political change in Ukraine adds another dimension to this tale of a man, himself the son of alcoholics, who believes that every child has the right to a normal life.